BPS 209: Confessions of a Hollywood Writer & Actor with John Leguizamo

Fast-talking and feisty-looking John Leguizamo has continued to
impress movie audiences with his versatility: he can play sensitive
and naïve young men, such as Johnny in Hangin' with the Homeboys;
cold-blooded killers like Benny Blanco in Carlito's Way; a heroic
Army Green Beret, stopping aerial terrorists in Executive Decision;
and drag queen Chi-Chi Rodriguez in To Wong Foo, Thanks for
Everything! Julie Newmar.

Arguably, not since ill-fated actor and comedian Freddie Prinze
starred in the smash TV series Chico and the Man had a youthful
Latino personality had such a powerful impact on critics and fans
alike. John Alberto Leguizamo Peláez was born July 22, 1960, in
Bogotá, Colombia, to Luz Marina Peláez and Alberto Rudolfo
Leguizamo.

He was a child when his family emigrated to the United States. He
was raised in Queens, New York, attended New York University and
studied under legendary acting coach Lee Strasberg for only one day
before Strasberg passed away.

The extroverted Leguizamo started working the comedy club circuit
in New York and first appeared in front of the cameras in an
episode of Miami Vice. His first film appearance was a small part
in Mixed Blood, and he had minor roles in Casualties of War and Die
Hard 2 before playing a liquor store thief who shoots Harrison Ford
in Regarding Henry.

His career really started to soar after his first-rate performance
in the independent film Hangin' with the Homeboys as a nervous
young teenager from the Bronx out for a night in brightly lit
Manhattan with his buddies, facing the career choice of staying in
a supermarket or heading off to college and finding out that the
girl he loves from afar isn't quite what he thought she was.

The year 1991 was also memorable for other reasons, as he hit the
stage with his show John Leguizamo: Mambo Mouth, in which he
portrayed seven different Latino characters. The witty and incisive
show was a smash hit and won the Obie and Outer Circle Critics
Award, and later was filmed for HBO, where it picked up a CableACE
Award.

He returned to the stage two years later with another satirical
production poking fun at Latino stereotypes titled John Leguizamo:
Spic-O-Rama. It played in Chicago and New York, and won the Drama
Desk Award and four CableACE Awards. In 1995 he created and starred
in the short-lived TV series House of Buggin', an all-Latino-cast
comedy variety show featuring hilarious sketches and comedic
routines.

The show scored two Emmy nominations and received positive reviews
from critics, but it was canceled after only one season. The gifted
Leguizamo was still keeping busy in films, with key appearances in
Super Mario Bros., Romeo + Juliet and Spawn. In 1998 he made his
Broadway debut in John Leguizamo: Freak, a
"demi-semi-quasi-pseudo-autobiographical" one-man show, which was
filmed for HBO by Spike Lee.

Utilizing his distinctive vocal talents, he next voiced a pesky rat
in Doctor Dolittle before appearing in the dynamic Spike
Lee-directed Summer of Sam as a guilt-ridden womanizer, as the
Genie of The Lamp in the exciting Arabian Nights and as Henri DE
Toulouse Lautrec in the visually spectacular Moulin Rouge!.

He also voiced Sid in the animated Ice Age, co-starred alongside
Arnold Schwarzenegger in Collateral Damage and directed and starred
in the boxing film Undefeated. Subsequently, Leguizamo starred in
the remake of the John Carpenter hit Assault on Precinct 13 and
George A. Romero's long-awaited fourth "Dead" film, Land of the
Dead.

There can be no doubt that the remarkably talented Leguizamo has
been a breakthrough performer for the Latino community in
mainstream Hollywood, in much the same way that Sidney Poitier
crashed through celluloid barriers for African-Americans in the
early 1960s.

Among his many strengths lies his ability to not take his ethnic
background too seriously but also to take pride in his Latino
heritage.

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